State establishes health goals

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 | 8:46 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- "A Public Health Agenda for Nevada," a list of five-year goals envisioned by the state Health Division, was to be released today.

The plan calls for the division to "improve the health status of all Nevadans, especially at risk populations including women and children, the homeless, minorities and elderly."

Luana Ritch, spokeswoman for the division, said the plan was developed over a year and includes ideas from a three-day planning conference held in Las Vegas in October.

One goal is to coordinate the various programs in an effort to focus on a specific problem.

Although individual effforts to promote fitness, stop smoking and develop a better diet in an attempt to battle the diseases are in place, Ritch said that "many areas are being addressed only in isolation."

The division hopes to bring the groups together in a coordinated effort.

Another goal explained in the plan calls for a quicker response to public health threats, such as the anthrax scare or the cancer cluster in Fallon.

The division would make an effort to integrate substance abuse treatment and the mental health system and aims to reduce substance abuse and enhance infectious disease response capacity.

Health Division Administrator Yvonne Silva said its list of priorities "focuses on issues of critical importance to improving health and protecting the public.'

She said the strategic plan will allow Nevada "to track and improve key health status indicators."